Salisbury School Board Hears Report On Tax Issue

October 29, 1988|by DAN FRICKER, The Morning Call

A special counsel told the Salisbury Township School Board last night what would happen if Lehigh Valley Hospital Center appeals a Lehigh County Board of Assesment Appeals' ruling lifting its tax exemption and ordering it to pay the district $479,000 in taxes this year.

Special counsel James Kellar was also expected to inform the board about tax negotiations between LVHC and the district that preceded the boards' ruling Thursday and its effect.

Kellar spoke to the board during a private executive session following a 10-minute special school board meeting. Kellar spoke briefly before the private meeting about the topics to be discussed.

The meeting at 8:30 p.m. in the administration building had been scheduled so Kellar could inform the board about negotiations between attorneys for the district and LVHC. The two sides were attempting to agree on the services and money the hospital is to provide to the district in lieu of tax payments.

However, in an unprecedented ruling, the board of assessment appeals declared that LVHC and three other hospitals are no longer tax-exempt because they failed to donate enough money and charitable care.

LVHC's assessed value of $6.3 million and the district's 74.5-mill tax produced a $479,000 tax bill for the hospital, district business manager George Crawford said.

If LVHC appeals the board's ruling, as expected, the district could re- enter negotiations with the hospital in an effort to reach an out-of-court settlement, Kellar said.

Board solicitor John E. Freund, who withdrew from negotiations after declaring a conflict of interest, used much of the public meeting to criticize an editorial that appeared in The Morning Call on Sunday. The editorial said a board decision to reject a $192,000 hospital offer was sound but criticized the negotiating process as secret.

Without elaborating, Freund said the editorial's facts and numbers were wrong and called it "nonsensical" to expect public negotiations. Freund said the bargaining was conducted in accordance with the state Sunshine Law guaranteeing public access to government actions.